tidewaterreview.com

Hands-free tomato sauce

Leah Eskin

Home on the Range

3:08 PM EST, January 24, 2014

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Lately I've been leaving things on the stove, which turns out to be a terrible technique. Things on the stove like to be stirred and prodded and tasted. They like to be thickened and spiced and mashed. Frankly, they like attention.

Leave the sauce or stew or simmering leeks unattended while you step away to take a shower or write a novel and nothing good happens. Those sauces and stews and leeks get resentful. They act out, badly. They go gummy, get scorched or burst into flames. Dramatic.

You could stick around. But wouldn't that abet bad behavior? Try an alternative approach: roasting. High heat and low moisture intensifies the flavors of meats, vegetables and fruits.

Even tomato sauce, queen of stovetop tending, can benefit from midoven neglect. It mellows the garlic and sweetens the tomato, which — bound with butter — thickens into a luscious sauce. Leaving the cook free to get something done. Aside from quashing fires.